KLandOT:WelcomebacktoTartu. Can you tell us a little bit about your encounters with this city?

DH: SlightlymorethanayearagoI visited TallinnUniversityofTechnology Tartu College for 6 months. ItaughtcoursesabouttownplanningintheLandscapeArchitectureprogram and also haddiscussionswithvariousprofessorsinbothTartuandTallinnabouttownplanningeducationsince this is not taught here astraditionally done intheU.K.andNorthAmerica. My research during that stay focuses on preservation of historic districts in Tartu and understanding Soviet-era planning. This time I am here with11studentsfromtheUniversityatBuffaloona3-week trip.Wespendmostofthe time inTartuandTallinnandalsovisitViljandi,Pärnu,OtepääandRiga.Thestudentslearnabout sustainable townplanningandEurope.They verymuchenjoytakingadvantageofalltheTartuhastoofferfromtheirlodgingonRaekojaplats.

DH: This is an important question. I thinking strengthening the city center is an important priority. There is vacancy in some buildings and under-utilization of building space; filling this space will help bring density to the center and generate activity and diversity. It may also help reduce expansion on the urban fringe, although the demand for detached homes can be a powerful force in changing urban structure. In the same way, I see the new decentralized buildings of the University of Tartu as destabilizing the center and promoting a sprawled city. New university buildings on the urban fringe also promote travel by car, are likely to have large surface parking lots, and scatter and weaken the critical mass of students in the center.

DH: These districts are very special and the wooden houses are appealing; however, the districts are preserved not through policy decisions but through “neglect” during Soviet times. In other cities, such districts of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century “worker tenements” were demolished to make way for new development. It is no wonder that Karlova and Supilinn are cherished by residents and visitors because they remind of us simpler times and display a distinctly Estonian style of urban-rural living with wood fires, unpaved roads, cluttered courtyards and gardens, and fruit trees.

DH:WhentheSovietUniondisintegrated,manyexpertspredictedthatthehousingestateswouldtransforminto “ghettos”,howeverthisgenerallydidnothappeninEstoniaorelsewhere.Workinginthefavorofthedistrictsisadecades-oldtraditioninEstoniaoflivinginapartmentblocks(unpopularintheUnitedStates)andlittlestigmaattachedtothedistricts.Whatmadethedistrictsattractiveinthefirstplacewastheavailabilityofnearbyservices,includingkindergartensandschools,playgrounds,retailandcommercialopportunities,andspaceforsocializationandrecreation.Tomaintainthestabilityofthedistricts,Ithinkthecitymustalwaysmaintaintheinfrastructureandservices,otherwisethedistrictsmaylosetheirappeal,andresidentsmaypursueotherhousingopportunities.ThisisarealdangerinEstonia,asthepopulationisshrinking although the countryseemstofollowsomeofthebest-knownstrategiesbyfocusingontechnologyandinformationeconomies,tourism,andculture.